L.A. County supervisors delay vote on Taft CCF contract

Supervisors will vote again on Sept. 4, Whiting says. a day earlier, Taft City Council approved a 5-year, $75 million deal

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors delayed approval of a contract to send jail inmates to Taft.

The Taft City Council approved a 5-year agreement to house prisoners from the L.A. County Jail system Monday night, but the L.A. Supervisors said they want to take some time to study the contract before acting on it, Taft Chief of Police Ed Whiting said.

The Los Angeles supervisors will look at the contract again on Sept. 4, less than one week before Taft was planning to get the CCF open again with L.A. Inmates.

That is going to delay the opening, Whiting said.

Whiting said the Los Angeles supervisors just wanted to take a longer look at the contract and he is confident there's no potential deal-breaker.

“It's nothing like that,” Whiting said Tuesday afternoon. “For whatever reason, they just want to take a little more time to look at it.”

“We've done out part,” Whiting said. “We've signed the contract.”

The chief said both sides were very satisfied with the deal that would cost L.A. County up to $75 million over 5 years but still save that county a considerable amount compared to housing all those inmates themselves.

“They are very happy with the contract,” Whiting said. “They've vetted the contract with numerous, numerous agencies.”